Power transmission systems using magnetic field coupling have hitherto been in practical use as wireless power transmission systems. The power transmission systems using the magnetic field coupling include coils in power transmission apparatuses and power reception apparatuses. In the power transmission systems using the magnetic field coupling, the power-transmission-side coils are magnetically coupled to the power-reception-side coils to transmit power from the power transmission apparatuses to the power reception apparatuses.
However, such power transmission systems using the magnetic field coupling have disadvantages of degradation of transmission characteristics caused by positional shifts between the power-transmission-side coils and the power-reception-side coils, restriction on the coil shapes, heat generation in the coils, induction heating caused by metallic particles, and so on.
In contrast, various power transmission systems using electric field coupling have been proposed, as described in, for example, Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2. The power transmission systems using the electric field coupling include coupling electrodes in power transmission apparatuses and power reception apparatuses. In the power transmission systems using the electric field coupling, the power-transmission-side coupling electrodes are electrically coupled to the power-reception-side coupling electrodes, that is, the power-transmission-side coupling electrodes and the power-reception-side coupling electrodes form capacitors and high-frequency high-voltage signals are transmitted via the capacitors to transmit power from the power transmission apparatuses to the power reception apparatuses.
Such a power transmission system using the electric field coupling has a basic configuration illustrated in FIG. 8.
FIG. 8 illustrates a basic configuration of a general power transmission system using the electric field coupling. The general power transmission system using the electric field coupling includes a power transmission apparatus 90 and a power reception apparatus 80.
The power transmission apparatus 90 includes a power transmission module 910, a power-transmission-side active electrode 920, and a power-transmission-side passive electrode 930. The power-transmission-side active electrode 920 and the power-transmission-side passive electrode 930 are connected to the power transmission module 910. A power supply (not illustrated) is connected to the power transmission module 910.
The power reception apparatus 80 includes a power reception module 810, a power-reception-side active electrode 820, and a power-reception-side passive electrode 830. A load (not illustrated) is connected to the power reception module 810.
In transmission of the power from the power transmission apparatus 90, the power reception apparatus 80 is arranged with respect to the power transmission apparatus 90 so that the power-reception-side active electrode 820 opposes the power-transmission-side active electrode 920 and the power-reception-side passive electrode 830 opposes the power-transmission-side passive electrode 930.
In the above arrangement of the power reception apparatus 80 with respect to the power transmission apparatus 90, the power-reception-side active electrode 820 and the power-transmission-side active electrode 920 produce active-side coupling capacitance (capacitor) and the power-reception-side passive electrode 830 and the power-transmission-side passive electrode 930 produce passive-side coupling capacitance (capacitor). High-voltage alternating current is supplied via the coupling capacitances to realize the power transmission from the power transmission apparatus 90 to the power reception apparatus 80.
The power reception apparatus 80 is mounted on the power transmission apparatus 90 in a manner illustrated in FIG. 9. FIG. 9 is a perspective view illustrating a mode in which the power reception apparatus is mounted on the power transmission apparatus in the wireless power transmission system. As illustrated in FIG. 9, the power transmission apparatus 90 includes a base member 91 and a back-face member 92. The base member 91 is shaped so as to protrude from the main face of the back-face member 92 toward the front direction. The power reception apparatus 80 having a plate rectangular parallelepiped housing 81 is placed on a space provided by the protrusion of the base member 91. More specifically, for example, the power-transmission-side active electrode and the power-transmission-side passive electrode are provided in the back-face member 92 of the power transmission apparatus 90. The power-reception-side active electrode and the power-reception-side passive electrode are provided in the power reception apparatus 80. Only placing the power reception apparatus 80 including the power-reception-side active electrode and the power-reception-side passive electrode on the power transmission apparatus 90 so that the power-reception-side active electrode opposes the power-transmission-side active electrode and the power-reception-side passive electrode opposes the power-transmission-side passive electrode produces the coupling capacitances in the above manner, thereby realizing the power transmission using the electric field coupling.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (Translation of PCT Application) No. 2009-531009
Patent Document 2: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2009-89520
However, the wireless power transmission systems using the electric field coupling in the related art have the following problems.
FIG. 10 is a block diagram of a measurement system for the wireless power transmission system in the related art. In the measurement system for the power reception module in the wireless power transmission system in the related art, it is necessary to prepare components and connect the components with each other based on the real apparatuses in a manner illustrated in FIG. 10 even in product inspection (characteristics measurement) of the power transmission module 910 before assembling the power transmission apparatus 90.
Specifically, in addition to the power transmission module 910 to be measured (to be inspected), the power-transmission-side active electrode 920, the power-transmission-side passive electrode 930, the power reception module 810, the power-reception-side active electrode 820, and the power-reception-side passive electrode 830 are prepared at the side of the inspection apparatus. In addition, a measurement device 70 is connected to the power reception module 810 and so on. The same applies to the inspection (the characteristics measurement) of the power reception module 810. It is necessary to prepare components and connect the components with each other based on the real apparatuses also in the inspection of the power reception module 810.
However, in such an inspection method (characteristics measurement method), it is necessary to connect the power transmission module 910 and the power reception module 810 in the same manner as in the real apparatuses each time the measurement is performed. Accordingly, the measurement is complicated to increase the scale of the characteristics measurement system.